Integrating Commercial, Community and

Conservation Functions in the Forest Sector

Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Forest Sector of Liberia*
AUGUST 2009

OBJECTIVES OF THE SEA:

The main objectives of the SEA

were developed through
discussions with key stakeholders
during the inception of the SEA in
October 2007. The objectives
adopted by the SEA team included:

• Identification of key strategic

challenges facing the successful
implementation of Liberia‟s 3Cs
forest policy (which would be
implemented in an environment
that includes a rapidly expanding
commercial forestry industry, an
expanding protected area system
and an increasing focus on
community forestry); Photo by Adrian Whiteman

• Examination of current
responses to these issues;
• Development of an action plan
for how the government and
stakeholders in the forest sector
can meet these challenges; and
• Development of monitoring and
evaluation criteria for the
implementation of the action plan.
The SEA examined strategic
challenges posed by each of the
Cs of the Liberian forest policy and
the challenges posed by the
interrelationship between the forest
sector as a whole and other
sectors of the country.
Forests are one of the most important natural resources in Liberia, yet have
never been managed to deliver anywhere near their full potential to contribute to
the long-term, sustainable economic growth of the nation, the livelihoods of local
and rural communities, or the long-term conservation of the country‟s natural
heritage.
On September 16, 2006, the Government of Liberia approved a new Forest Law.
This law charts the ways in which forests are going to be used in Liberia – for
commercial, conservation and community-oriented purposes (the three Cs), and
leaves open the possibility of using forests for carbon storage via funding
mechanisms for avoided deforestation.
The use of forest resources to achieve the three Cs implies a series of direct and
indirect positive and negative economic, social and environmental impacts.
Recognizing this, an extensive amount of work has been done on potential
environmental impacts of possible concession arrangements. As the process
advances towards implementation of the forest policy and law, there is the need
to examine potential impacts of the policy specifically with regards to commercial
use of forests more broadly, protected areas and community forestry. Moreover,
there is the need to conduct such impact assessment in a manner that takes into
account cross-sector impacts and trade-offs.
In 2007, the World Bank provided resources for conducting an institution-
centered strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of the forest sector with the
goal of guiding implementation of the new forest law and assisting in designing
the appropriate institutional mechanisms within and across sectors to enhance
positive impacts and to mitigate negative ones.

* This SEA was financed through the Bank-Netherlands Partnership Program. IUCN, in
partnership with ProACT and the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), implemented the SEA
with support from the Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) and Africa Environment
(AFTEN) departments of the World Bank.
 SEA OF THE FOREST SECTOR OF LIBERIA
Photo by Adrian Whiteman
METHODOLOGY
In order to maximize the input from the
Government of Liberia to the SEA
process and to build capacity on the
technical aspects of the SEA, a national
SEA Team was established. The team
was composed of staff of the Forest
Development Authority (FDA) and the
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), with coordination and facilitation
provided by Sustainable Development
Institute (SDI). When necessary, the
core members of the SEA were
supplemented by representatives from
the Office of the Chairman, House
Committee on Agriculture and Forestry,
Ministry of Planning and Economic
Affairs, Ministry of Land, Mines and
Energy, Ministry of Internal Affairs and
the National Investment Commission.
The SEA process involved various
meetings and workshops. More
specifically, two stakeholder workshops
were held prior to initiating
consultations. Subsequently, a joint
regional consultation process was
undertaken in conjunction with the
drafting process for the Community
Rights Law that included regional
meetings for eight counties. During the
regional consultation process seven
regional workshops were conducted in
Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa, Grand Gedeh,
Lofa, Nimba, River Gee, and Sinoe
counties. The workshop in Buchanan
also included participants from Rivercess
county, soliciting input from eight
counties overall. Along with the regional
workshops, 29 informal grassroots
meetings were held in which 606 people
participated, while 216 people
participated in the regional workshops. In
total, 242 or approximately 40% of the
participants were women.
An SEA Team workshop was held on the
preliminary findings of the regional
consultation process as part of the
consolidation of the regional consultation
report. A drafting workshop was held
shortly after and attended by technical
experts from governments and civil
societies. The preliminary findings of the
regional consultation process report were
presented and the participants were
requested to review and add to these
issues, in the context of the SEA. The
issues raised at this meeting were
consolidated with all other issues noted
since the inception of the SEA and were
further examined in the prioritization
process.
A prioritization workshop was
coordinated shortly thereafter. In
addition, the SEA team coordinated
meetings between themselves and key
stakeholders on an individual basis, as
well as the regular Team meetings.
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MAIN FINDINGS
Following are the main findings and
outcomes from the four situation
assessments (environmental, social,
economic and legal, and institutional),
the National Stakeholder Workshop and
the case studies.
The main result of the environmental
situation assessment is that few
conflicts exist between the 3Cs at the
policy level (National Forest
Management Strategy), but possible
conflicts may arise during the
implementation phase among the 3Cs.
The reasons being the parameters of
each of the 3Cs are not well defined
and despite the fact that each of them
has defined deliverables, they overlap
at certain points. Several priority
challenges have been identified and
these are related to the lack of clear
responsibility as to who should carry out
conservation activities in the forestry
sector within the 3C concept and the
absence of a coordinated mechanism to
ensure contribution of the 3Cs in the
reduction of poverty in communities
without any harm to the environment
and to the community livelihoods.
Furthermore, there is a conflict between
what is considered protected wildlife
species and the perception of the local
communities that regard these as a
pest as well as a conflict between a law
establishing the land commission and
the Community Right Law with respect
to forest land.
The main findings of the social situation
assessment are related to the limited
awareness of the 3C concept at the
community and national level and for a
need of more awareness raising
activities, the limited capacity of
communities to efficiently participate in
the implementation of the 3C concept,
challenges related to the integration of
the 3C concept in poverty reduction
mechanisms, limited access of under
the current conservation model
communities to protected areas and to
extraction of NTFPs in protected areas
practiced in Liberia, the lack of clear
 SEA OF THE FOREST SECTOR OF LIBERIA
understanding of benefits for the local
communities from protected areas and
no common understanding of benefits
from the levels of the local communities
and logging concessionaires and the lack
of harmonization of sectoral policy with
respect to the implementation of the 3Cs.
One of the key findings of the economic
situation assessment is related to the fact
that any economic decision-making
process will exclude potential benefits of
forest management options due to the
lack of economic data on the
“community” and “conservation” aspects,
despite the stated policy coherence
between the 3Cs. One of the key
challenges facing the forest sector is to
find a way of integrating all 3Cs into
economic and financial planning. During
the SEA process and consultations the
main issue noted was the under-
valuation of forest economic benefits and
financial opportunities. This means that
forest management decisions tend to
lean more toward commercial forest
logging operations and to the stakeholder
groups who stand to benefit most from
these. Under-valuation also means that
potential financial opportunities to create
revenue for FDA may be missed beyond
fines, penalties, royalties, concession
fees, stumpage fees, land rent and
associated timber charges and that a
whole number of forest values are weakly
represented in the Liberian forest policy
with a whole series of financial stimuli
being directed towards other sectors. To
tackle these challenges, there is a need
for updated information on commercial
logging and to create data on the value
of NTFP and of forest ecosystem
services.
Further to the situation assessments,
three case studies have been conducted
to help inform policy discussions by
providing practical examples of how the
3Cs are working in actual field contexts.
The three study sites were chosen based
on the forestry, mining and agricultural
sector. These are Butter Hill, Grand Cape
Mount Country, Kpayaquelleh, Lofa
County and Dulay, Nimba County. There
are particular findings on each of the
cases selected and also common point
for all three cases.
The experience of Butter Hill, reinforced
the point that sufficient time is required
for the community consultation to take
place, but also that there should be more
understanding between the FDA and
affected communities. The case study of
Kpayaquelleh provides an example of
forest community self-regulating where
pit-sawing is allowed under community
controlled conditions for housing and
community development projects. The
Dulay case study provides an example of
the difficulty in boundary determination
that will be necessary particularly in the
case of expanding the proposed
protected areas. The common points are
related to lack of new points brought
under the CRL as the communities had
already identified community forest
areas, to communities in most part
rejecting being “paid” not to use their
forests, to the need for a common
understanding that still needs to be
developed for interaction between
community and government structures, to
the absolute rejection of all communities
of the idea of mining and forestry in the
same area and the need for increased
understanding on the part of the
communities of the 3C policy.
The National SEA Workshop was held in
Monrovia in November 2008 comprising
a cross-section of stakeholders including
the FDA, EPA, other government
agencies, NGOs, private sector, donor
agencies and members of the Liberia
Forest Initiative (LFI) as well as
participants from the civil society. The
workshop was to identify the strategic
issues and chart out an action matrix.
The working definition of a “strategic
issue” that was adopted during this
process was one that would point to the
"big picture”, future, long-term goals and
implementation of the 3Cs of Liberia‟s
forest policy, which as noted above is
premised on an integrated approach.
The priority issues were published in a
Draft Scoping Report which was
distributed to stakeholders in Monrovia
for comment.
3
THE PROCESS RESULTED
IN THE IDENTIFICATION
OF THE FOLLOWING KEY
ISSUES:
• Continued dialogue on
forest issues: all stakeholders
were in agreement on the need
to establish a common platform
whose main focus would be to
create a space where the issues
themselves can be discussed,
as opposed to focusing on the
positions adopted by different
stakeholders on those issues.
This would provide for a free
flow of information and
exchange of views on forest
sector processes, as well as to
the extension to the
management of other natural
resources, particularly to the
mining sector.
• Community benefits and
community involvement: the
need for a clear definition and
mechanism for the distribution
of those benefits was articulated
not only for the forest sector but
also for the other natural
resource sectors. This would
require not only a determination
of the appropriate policies and
administrative mechanisms but
also a thorough dissemination of
these new ideas to affected
communities.
• Community Forestry
Development Committees and
Social Agreements: There was
recognition of good intentions
behind these concepts but it
was noted that proper
implementation is challenged by
a variety of factors.
• Bridging the gap between
policy and practice: the need
to „walk the talk‟ and not only
„talk the talk‟, i.e., implementing
the legislation and policies that
already exist .
 SEA OF THE FOREST SECTOR OF LIBERIA
ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED
In Liberia the stated policy is that of an
integrated 3C approach, that is to assure
an integrated commercial forestry,
community forestry and conservation
activities in order to maximize the
economic, social and environmental
benefits from forest resources. Due to the
stated 3C approach, any one of the three
could be considered as an alternative.
Commercial forestry has received by far
the most attention due to the resources
dedicated by the Liberian Government
and the international community and
agencies providing aid in the forest
sector. There has been increasing
attention for the conservation aspect of
forest management, however significantly
less than for commercial forestry, both in
terms of resources dedicated as well as
the conceptual model adopted. The least
developed of the three Cs is community
forestry – both in terms of resources,
conceptual model and implementation.
There is much debate in the forest sector
on how these 3C options relate to each
other and whether they are exclusive or if
they complement each other, as well as if
they can be implemented on the same
geographical footprint.
Another aspect considered when
choosing alternatives for examination
was whether the current allocation of
resources should continue favoring
commercial forestry or whether resources
should be reallocated to give more
emphasis to conservation and community
components. An additional aspect that
was considered was how each of the 3Cs
should be implemented, and how the
SEA can influence the mode of
implementation.
The social, environmental and economic
consequences of each set of alternatives
will be analyzed during the assessment
phase of the SEA.
Photo from World Bank Photo Library
CONCRETE POLICY ACTION
RECOMMENDATION
As a result of the final outcomes and
deliberations of the National Workshop
and based on the prioritization of issues
a Strategic Action Plan was put together
for the forest sector organized per priority
issue identified . The priority issues and
actions are, as follows:
Priority Social Issues
• Community rejection of “bad” business
as usual: the actions to be taken are
improving all stakeholder participation in,
and ownership of, forest management,
ensuring compliance with legal
instruments and equitable benefit
sharing; awareness raising actions and
outreach should take place and
communities should elect a body based
on balanced representation
• Community ownership and entitlement:
this can be done through ensuring
consistency of FDA policies and strategy,
laws and regulations with the
promulgated CRL, adoption of simple
and appropriate guidelines on community
forestry and dissemination of these as
per the 3C approach and adoption of
specific community outreach activities
explaining the actual benefits to be
4
expected, as well as developing a clearly
articulated strategy on community forest
management that outlines how this would
relate to the other two Cs and
implementation of “partnership
agreements”.
Priority Economic Issues
• Economic Value of Non-Timber Forest
Products (NTFPs) not recognized:
conducting an NTFP assessment and
market study from Liberia and
neighboring countries, developing
awareness materials from the result of
the study, organizing a community forum
through local authorities and conducting
workshops to distribute the materials
• Equitable management of forest
revenue: actions to be taken are the
identification and formulation of
community committees established by
consensus or heat count to equitably
manage revenue and formulation of
policy and guidelines or distribution and
management of revenue
• Community Ownership of Forest
Resources: promulgation of additional
regulations in terms of FDA legislation
laws, strengthening the capacity of
communities to manage the forest
resources for themselves and to
participate in the commercial and
conservation activities through the
organization of consultations, workshops
and work sessions and government
should regulate and supervise the
management of the forest resources
• Improved value addition of timber and
non-timber small and medium size
enterprises (including pit sawing):
undertaking an assessment of the local
and commercial value of NTFP and
timber locally and nationally through
surveys and studies, regulating the level
of products leaving the community and
strengthening the capacity of local
community in value and addition of
timber and NTFPs through the
organization of workshops and media
outreach on market information
 SEA OF THE FOREST SECTOR OF LIBERIA
Photo by Adrian Whiteman
Priority Environmental Issues
• Cumulative Environmental Impacts: the
action to be taken is the development
and implementation of a land use plan for
the site such that no two activities take
place on the same site at the same time,
through awareness raising actions,
training, enforcement of was and
regulations and monitoring of separate
activities
• Expansion of the protected area
network: enacting legislation for the
gazettement of additional protected
areas within the 30% provision limit,
ensuring community participation and
acceptance of any new protected areas
through the development of a joint
management plan with communities
impacted by these
• Reforestation and restoration issues:
action to be taken here is the replanting
of trees and proper management of
those trees planted through proper
species identification
• Habitat destruction and species
displacement, disturbance and reduction:
actions to be taken are integrated
management planning and protection
and taking into account traditional
management techniques; shifting
cultivation is to be discouraged and
swamp farming is to be encouraged
5
• Integration of the 3Cs of Liberian
forest policy: create an awareness of
the Liberian forest policy of the 3Cs
through the organization of workshops,
town hall meetings and radio talk
shows, identification of various
stakeholders of each of the 3Cs,
undertaking of inter-sectoral
coordination and information sharing,
development of a comprehensive land
use plan for Liberia through interaction
between FDA, MLME, EPA, MoA and
communities, formulation and
dissemination of environmental
guidelines for forest activities
(harvesting of timber and non-timber
activities) and formulation of
community access rights to forest
Priority Legal and Institutional Issues
resources and benefits in light of CRL.
• Capacity building: training of forest
Furthermore, priority emerging issues
management committees, FDA and civil
have been identified and these are:
society in forest management through the
i) biofuels and other agro-forestry
organization of short-medium term
connections to forest management,
courses, workshops, seminars, site visits,
ii) climate change/carbon financing
study tours and secondments with
mechanisms,
development partners in the field, and
iii) coordination amongst donors and
building on community management
development agencies,
knowledge, technical support from
iv) forest curricula and training,
donors and development partners and
undertaking an assessment of the skills-
v) nationwide strategic decision making
and
set that the CRL and the new forestry
vi) pit sawing.
regime require of communities and
developing a community outreach
program based on the findings of the
assessment
• Community rights and land tenure:
undertaking of n institutional and policy
review by the FDA, including reviews of
the National Forest Policy and
Implementation Strategy and the National
Forest Management Strategy, improving
the enforcement capacity and organizing
consultative meetings with communities
and stakeholders
• Coordination across government: FDA
should consider establishing an inter-
should be signed between FDA and
MLME institutional/inter-ministerial
structure committee to ensure effective
coordination of the forest law and other
Photo from World Bank Photo Library
natural resource legislation and MOUs
 SEA OF THE FOREST SECTOR OF LIBERIA 6

NEXT STEPS

The National SEA Workshop validated the priority issues recognized during the process and it also identified the activities
necessary as next steps for completing the SEA process. These are summarized below:

Capacity building programs for FDA, CSO and communities

A general consensus existed amongst the participants of the need to increase capacity targeting all national stakeholders
involved in the forest sector.

Initiating forest dialogue platform

A general consensus also existed on the need to create a platform for stakeholder interaction and information sharing. In this
sense, a proposal was forwarded to establish a platform that will provide the medium to sustain forest sector engagements and
assist in filling the information gap between community-based and Monrovia stakeholders, thus reducing the tensions between
government agencies and some communities and encouraging mutual cooperation for sustainable natural resource
management approaches that promote “public participation”.

Expanded SEA team to address the remaining emerging issues

The details of how exactly this will work are not clear yet and the mechanisms of such expansion were left to the current SEA
team to figure out during their next meetings, along with the particular government agencies that are knowledgeable about the
given issues and who will be involved in carrying out such tasks.

Extend and continue stakeholder dialogue outside Monrovia

Issues identified during the regional consultations are contained in the priority issues identified in the SEA process to date.
Given this, there was a general consensus amongst community representatives at the SEA workshop on the need for regular
regional consultations that would do more to raise awareness about the forest sector initiatives as well as address
misconceptions in disseminating information about the sector at the local level.

Community benefits and community involvement

Due to the lack of clarity regarding “community benefits”, a general agreement amongst NGO participants was reached on the
need to clearly define elements constituting community benefits and raise awareness among community dwellers about it.

Simplification and dissemination of laws and policies to communities

It was agreed by the participants that public participation is key in order to achieve sustainable forest management and this can
only be achieved through the dissemination of forest sector information to communities in a simple, clear and concise manner.
This need became evident more so during the workshop where it appeared that none of the community representatives present
were aware of the Social Agreement Handbook that had been developed within the FDA.

SEA OF THE FOREST SECTOR OF LIBERIA